Dissertation Project

International Relations in the Digital Age

How have advances in digital technology affected the course and conduct of international relations? Can digital technologies alter the logic of state competition? Can advances in digital technology destabilize the existing liberal international order? My dissertation project fills a gap in the existing discourse on digital technologies and their effects on the international system. Beginning with the premise that the majority of international relations theory developed in the pre-digital age, I develop a theory which accounts for how the Digital Revolution has affected the course and conduct of international affairs and interstate relations. In so doing, I highlight how the Digital Revolution has altered the process of political deliberation in liberal democracies and open societies in three crucial ways, and accounts for the historically-high levels of political polarization in liberal democracies today.

I then trace how illiberal revisionist states use new digital strategies as a cornerstone for a new form of strategic competition, which can credibly lead to a change in the existing international system without requiring a direct challenge to the system by revisionist states. These new digital strategies provide distinct advantages over traditional revisionist strategies, being low-cost, low-risk, and standing a higher chance of success. Finally, I highlight how pressures from the Digital Revolution operate both at the domestic and international levels, negatively affecting the ability of states to coordinate long-term, stable foreign policies, which will likely degrade the stability and coherence of the current liberal international order, as well as strong international institutions more broadly. The theory developed in this project provides clear and direct answers to what we can expect from great power competition and what the future of the liberal international order will look like in the coming Digital Age.

Peer-Reviewed Articles

Papers Under Review

Wisniewski, Erik, and Grant M. Sharratt. "Speaking to "the People" Globally: The Digital Revolution and the Growth of Populist Politics"

Papers Under Revision

Working Papers

Wisniewski, Erik. "The Digital Revolution and the Changing Face of International Revisionism."

Wisniewski, Erik. "The Digital Revolution and the New Boundary Problem in Democratic Deliberation."

Harden, John P., and Erik Wisniewski. "Tying Virtual Hands? Costly Signals in the Digital Age."